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Training Course Summary:

Imagine taking your Illustrator skills to the next level and perfecting complex logos that support PDF and PSD files ready for conversion to raster and vector graphics for posters and web graphics with full colour management after just 2 days of training.

That's what you'll be able to do after this Illustrator training course offered by Academy Class.

You have probably used Illustrator to create simple illustrations and logos. However, you may now need to create complex illustrations, print documents without any errors or colour mismatches, or prepare illustrations for the web. In this Illustrator course, you will create complex, robust illustrations that go beyond those you could create using Adobe Illustrator CS3 basic tools.

Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based graphics program that allows beginners and experts alike to create professional quality print and web designs. In this Illustrator course, you will learn skills that allow you to take advantage of Illustrator's powerful tools to create illustrations and type effects. Learn to design advertisements and printable documents. Work with colors, gradients, layers, fonts, and photos to create eye-catching illustrations and text effects. We'll discuss both the print and web uses of this sophisticated graphics program. Through Illustrator, you will have new creative freedom that to realize your ideas quickly and powerfully, instantly converting bitmaps to vector artwork and paint more intuitively, saving time with intelligent palettes and optimized workspaces and integrate with other software allowing you to produce extraordinary graphics for print, video, the web, and mobile devices.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

create a complex illustration.
provide support for PDF and PSD files.
convert raster graphics to vector graphics.
color an artwork using the Live Paint feature.
create a poster.
export a graphic for the web.
apply color management so that colors match as closely as possible.
prepare documents for composite and commercial printing.

Pre-Requisites:

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Introduction or equivalent experience

Who Should Attend:

Graphic designers or people switching into a design job or taking on design responsibilities. They will have some previous experience with Illustrator.

Training Course Overview/Content:

Essential Illustrator Concepts
What are Vector Graphics?

Create a Custom Workspace

Fill and Stroke Attributes

Document Settings
The Illustrator Interface - Enhanced in CS3
Exploring panels and workspaces

Using the Control Panel

Navigation

Smart Guides

Preview Options

Grids and Guides

The Bounding Box

Panels

Libraries- New in CS3
Drawingand Selection Essentials
Draw Paths with the Pen Tool

Shape Tools

The Seletion Tools - Enhanced in CS3

Methods of Selection

Shapes

Duplicate Objects

The Pen Tool

The Pencil tool
Path Editing - Enhanced in CS3
Editing Anchor Points - Enhanced in CS3

Compound Shapes

Pathfinder Options

Eraser tool - New in CS3

Manipulating and Editing Paths

Outlining Strokes

Path Options

Appearances
The Appearance Panel

Object Attributes

Multiple attributes

Applying Live Effects

Graphic Styles

Appearance Panel settings
Working with Groups and Layers
Defining groups

Editing groups

Working with layers

Layers and object hierarchy

Advanced Drawing and Path Editing
Creating Live Paint groups

Detecting gaps in Live Paint groups

Path editing with Live Paint

Using Offset Path

Dividing an object into a grid

Cleaning up errant paths
Working with Color - Enhanced in CS3
Defining swatches - Enhanced in CS3

Creating swatch groups and libraries

Working with gradients

Working with patterns

Using the Color Guide

Live Colour - New in CS3

Finding colors with kuler - New in CS3

Modifying color in artwork

Object Transformation and Positioning
Moving and copying objects
Rotating and scaling objects

Reflecting and skewing objects
Using the Free Transform tool

Using the Transform panel

Repeating transformations

Using the Transform Each function

Aligning objects

Distributing objects

Brushes

Creating a calligraphic brush

Creating a scatter brush
Creating an art brush

Creating a pattern brush

Working with Masks
Using layer clipping masks

Creating opacity masks

Using Symbols
Defining and editing symbols

Editing symbols

Applying Filters and Live Effects
Minding your resolution settings

Applying the 3D Extrude & Bevel effect

Applying the 3D Revolve effects

Mapping artwork to 3D objects

Transforming Effects

Using the Stylize effects

Using the Scribble effect

Using the Warp effect

Advanced Text Editing
Creating and using paragraph styles

Creating and using character styles

Taking advantage of OpenType fonts

Using the Glyphs panel

Wrapping text around objects

Checking spelling

Using the Change Case function

Setting tabs and leaders

Dealing with legacy text
Designing for the Web
Using Pixel Preview

Specifying web slicing

Optimizing web graphics

Integration with Adobe Flash - Enhanced in CS3

Creating simple animations

Creating Blends
Creating a basic blend

Using a blend to create an airbrush effect

Using a blend to create an animation

Using a blend to evenly distribute objects
Working with Images
Placing images

Using the Links panel
The Edit Original workflow
Live Trace
Rasterizing artwork

Specialised Tasks
Creating graphs

Using Gradient Mesh

Using Envelope Warps

The Liquify Distortion tools

Saving and Printing
Saving your Illustrator document

Printing your Illustrator document

Using the Crop Area tool - New in CS3

Setting up page tiling


Working with Other Programs
Exporting files for use in QuarkXPress

Exporting files for use in InDesign

Exporting files for use in Word/Excel/PowerPoint

Exporting files for use in Photoshop

Exporting files for use in Flash

Exporting files for use in After Effects